M. Carey Thomas
A fiercely intellectual pioneer who built Bryn Mawr into a citadel of academic rigor for women, demanding they receive an education equal to men's best.
1857–1935 (age 78)·American educator, suffragist, and linguist·Birthday: January 2
Biography
M. Carey Thomas was a woman who refused to take no for an answer, especially when it came to the life of the mind. Denied a degree from several universities simply because she was a woman, she went abroad, earning a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Zurich with highest honors. In 1884, she helped open Bryn Mawr College, becoming its first dean and then its second president. She molded the college in her own formidable image, establishing graduate programs and a faculty of serious scholars, insisting that women were capable of the same demanding classical education offered at places like Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Beyond the campus, she was a forceful suffragist and a founder of the National College Women's Equal Suffrage League. Her personal life, shared with Mary Garrett, was as unconventional as her career. Thomas didn't just open a college; she built a fortress where women's intellect could reign supreme.
#1 When M. Was Born
The biggest hits of 1857
M.'s Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1857Born
1862Started school
President: Abraham Lincoln
1870Became a teenager
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1873Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Could vote
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1878Turned 21
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1887Turned 30
President: Grover Cleveland
1897Turned 40
President: William McKinley
1907Turned 50
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1917Turned 60
Russian Revolution overthrows the tsar; US enters WWI
President: Woodrow Wilson
1927Turned 70
Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic; The Jazz Singer premieres
President: Calvin Coolidge"My Blue Heaven" — Gene Austin
1935Died at 78
Social Security Act signed into law
Gas: $0.19/galHome: $3,450President: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Cheek to Cheek" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty
Key Achievements
- As president of Bryn Mawr College, she established high academic standards and a graduate school, making it a premier institution for women.
- Earned a Ph.D. *summa cum laude* from the University of Zurich after being barred from earning a degree at U.S. universities.
- Was a founding member of the National College Women's Equal Suffrage League, linking higher education with the fight for the vote.
- Spearheaded the drive to secure the original endowment for the Johns Hopkins Medical School, on the condition it admit women.
Did You Know?
She and her partner, Mary Garrett, lived together in a home called the Deanery on Bryn Mawr's campus.
She was a passionate supporter of the arts and required all Bryn Mawr students to study music.
As a child, she kept a secret diary written in a code of her own invention.
““Women should be educated exactly as men are educated, because their chief object in life is to think.””
